Australia again ...

So back in July, when I was in Australia, I took a day trip up to the Daintree forest, a rainforest on the northeastern coast of the country. We stopped at a wildlife sanctuary on the way, and wound up the adventure at gorgeous Cape Tribulation. (And then drove four hours in the bus back to Cairns.) Here are a few of the better pictures. Sorry for the delay in getting these posted!

Not nearly so cuddly as I'd hoped! In fact, if you can't tell from the look on my face, I was terrified. Apparently, if koalas are nervous, they dig in their claws, which I definitely didn't want to happen ... so I didn't move. At all.

I've seen worse vandalism ...

The problem with crocodile photos is you can't tell how HUGE they are! However, this one wasn't all that huge, so it's not that big of a problem ...

How can you not appreciate the visuals?

Don't worry, this isn't a real cassowary - which, if rumor is correct, would have killed me in a manner of seconds.

White water rafting in Australia!

So I've fallen a bit behind on my blog postings, and for that I apologize. The requirements of my thesis, Rotary obligations and social life have finally caught up with me, and I forgot that I'd never finished posting on my trip to Australia over winter break. Anyhow, here's the most important part of my trip: white water rafting!

I took my trip down the river my last day in Cairns, and had a GREAT time! The rapids were classes III and IV, and we had an amazing guide. He did purposefully lose about half of us from the raft at one point - retribution for when we refused to fall out for a staged photograph earlier in the run - but he was a lot better than many of the less experienced guides, and took us through some amazing rapids!

Don't worry, I didn't buy these photos - I "won" them on the 2 hour bus ride back to Cairns after the 5 hour trip. I'm excited that I did get them, though, as a memory of the best day of my visit to Australia!

(If you can't tell, I'm in the front of the raft. Obviously. That's where all the fun is!)